Columned game board



Oct. 16, 1951 Filed Feb. 24, 1949 J. K. AlRD COLUMNED GAME BOARD 2 Sheets-Sheet l 4 Sales \9 Tax Lqya/ mar/rei- Illegal markef sum F ederq/ 7 75% Sfafe .2 Tax Cr/y 7 Tax (DWZUS County ,2 Tax S 7: Ian /0 rop ilf L uxw y /5' Tax Sen/es 3 Tax f'eoZe-rcz/ 7 Tax Counfy 2 Tax In feriar 5 mere/70MB! Sfizfe 2 Tax L uxu y /5T1.x

I0 San/es Tax F e alercr/ I Tax ax 2 Refund Sin/en /0 Property /2 Sales 3 Tax 771: 20 The/'7" Sa/e: 3 Tax Tax 2 Rafa ncl bm d4w L Theff /o T/Ierf Sc;/e.s 8 Tax x I Refund dO/m A. A l'rcZ grwc/wloc afforn y Oct. 16, 1951 J. K. AIRD COLUMNED GAME BOARD 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed Feb. 24. 1949 (/o/h? Al rd (Zfforngy Patented Oct. 16, 1951 UNITED STATES ATT orrics COLUMNED GAME BOARD .lohn K. Aird, Baltimore, Md.

Application February 24, 1949, Serial No. 78,059

1 Claim. 1

This invention relates to a board game apparatus and is intended primarily to provide a game which might be called, taxation, or it might be called, going to market.

Particularly at times of stress but also at all times there are two markets through which one might purchase commodities, the legal market with its taxation and government regulation, and the illegal or black market with its hazards and heavy penalties. The instant game strikingly shows the effects of dealing in these respective markets and gives one an opportunity to go into either market or to rest for further consideration between plays if desired. The game comprises a board having thereon parallel spaces through which players may move in either market with playing pieces representing commodities desired and each player has a designated number, such as ten, of these pieces representing desirable commodities and he may move from one to three of these playing pieces forward on each play. This number that may be placed on the board at one time could, of course, be varied in accordance with the size of the board. Game money is also provided to pay the taxes or the penalties of the respective markets and the object of the game is to determine who may obtain all of his desired commodities with the expenditure of the least money in the form either of taxes or penalties. fail to obtain all the commodities before exhausting his amount of money the game will, of course, have been won by the tag: collector.

In order that the game may be clearly understood a representation is shown in the accompanying drawings in which:

Figure 1 is a plan view of the apparatus showing the board or playing field for the game.

Figure 2 shows one set of playing pieces representing the various commodities.

Figure 3 shows the game money and Figure 4 shows the usual dice with which the game may be played.

The game board is made up of three parallel columns. The one on the left represents the legal market and the one on the right represents the illegal or, black, market. The intermediate column represents the spaces of rest.

All the columns are divided into spaces and in the legal market the various taxes to which commodities are subject are indicated with figures bearing the rate of tax imposed upon a player whose piece is caught on that space by the tax collector. The illegal market likewise has vari- 0115 designations of penalties and of the rate of Should any of the players exaction of the penalty for players whose pieces are caught on them.

The board of this invention is different from all others in the arrangement and utility of the various columns and the designations therein.

The playing pieces are representations of commodities and they each bear numerals which, when multiplied by the rate of taxation or the rate of penalty, give the payment required by the player when his piece is caught on the spaces determined by chance by the tax collector. Each player has a set of pieces, those of each player may be of a difierent color from the others, and there may be three sets, so that four persons may play the game, or two, one always being the tax collector, and playing without pieces.

A player may play up to three pieces at a time and they may all three be moved forward the designated number of spaces indicated by the throw of dice with each throw. At the start of each play by a player he determines whether that play shall be in either the legal or illegal market and he may determine this for each separate commodity piece that he has on the board at the time. the number of three commodity pieces that may be played at a time is arbitrarily determined for the convenience of the players using a board of a given size.

The center column may be the column of rest or a neutral column and prior to any play the player may place therein any of his pieces on the board provided his pieces at the beginning of the play are not in spaces opposite the crossed spaces of the rest or neutral column. These crossed spaces may not be moved into or across from one market to the other by the player. It will be noted that toward the end or bottom of the board as shown in Figure 1 that no shifting from market to market is possible. The player must continue the course that he has begun.

At the beginning of the game each player is given approximately $200.00 in game money and after the rotation of players is chosen the first player rolls his dice or turns a spinner if other chance means are desired and he may place from one to three commodity pieces in the space determined by the chance means beginning from the start, the top of the board in Figure 1. Before throwing his dice he determines whether he will play all or any of his pieces in the legal or the illegal market. If he desired to place two men in active play and yet retain the third on the board he could place that man or piece in the It will be apparent, of course, that neutral or rest column. All the pieces in either market are moved forward the amount determined by the throw of dice, except those in the neutral column, which remain stationary. After all the players but one have taken their turn in this manner, the tax collector then takes his turn and whatever figure his dice or chance means turns up is utilized against the pieces in the legal market by calculating the appropriate tax. For instance, if one piece were in the fourth space from the top in the legal market and the tax collector threw a 4 then that piece would be subject to a 3% sales tax because the marginal number was the one thrown by the collector and if the piece represented a piano bearing the numeral the sales tax would be 3 times 10 or $30 and that amount would be paid by the player of that piece to the tax collector. Should a piece be in the illegal market and should it have stopped in the eighth space and the tax collector rolled a 6 and again the commodity shows a piano it will be noted that a penalty of ten times ten would be exacted against that player or $100. Nevertheless the pieces stay Where they are after the tax collector makes his collections of taxes and penalties and the game proceeds. Toward the end of the game it will be noted that the precise number must be rolled by a player to complete his purchase of that particular commodity and if three commodity pieces have been placed on the board, after one purchase is completed another commodity piece may be placed on the board at the beginning with the players next play. In this manner the game proceeds until some player completes the purchase of all of his commodities with the amount of money which he has on hand or should all the purchasers or players exhaust their money prior to the purchase of all their commodities then the tax collector will win the game.

One rule of the game is to the effect that the luxury tax should apply only to jewelry and cosmetics so that should the tax collector roll a 9 and no cosmetic or jewelry pieces were on the appropriate space in the legal market that tax would not be exacted.

Since each player moves over the board, with his separate pieces, a number of times, the board becomes the course or path of dealing, not merely a straight board for a player to take one piece along.

Diagrams of columns have been used in games before, but they were not shaped the same as these, nor used in the same way, nor did they bear similar designations nor produce the same results.

It will be apparent that various modifications in the commodities and the board and its spaces and in the amount of money available for each player as well as the chance means used may be made without departing from the invention.

What is claimed as new and is desired to be secured by Letters Patent is:

In a board game to be played with playing pieces, a board serving as a playing field having three parallel columns of marked spaces, the outer two of said columns constituting optional paths or playing courses extending from one end of the board to the other, said two columns of the board having thereon indications of rates of payments required from players stopping pieces thereon and other indications on said board adjacent said columns to determine by chance whether any payments should be made, the intermediate third column being a column of rest and having designations in certain spaces to bar the spaces from entrance of players pieces thereinto.

JOHN K. AIRD.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 714,754 Stebbins Dec. 2, 1902 1,125,867 Mohr Jan. 19, 1915 1,769,726 Walker July 1, 1930 2,025,082 Darrow Dec. 31, 1935 2,042,645 Webb June 2, 1936 2,052,797 Read Sept. 1, 1936 2,414,165 Paschal Jan. 14, 1947 

